Life

Stand up and be counted

Along with millions of Americans of Middle Eastern ancestry, the Iranian-Americans feel particularly singled out with the enduring and agonizing deterioration of their civil and constitutional rights, rights violations that have only been exacerbated after September 11 when the U.S. was despicably attacked by a group of fanatical terrorists from abroad. I tend to mainly focus herein on the particular plight of the nearly one million law abiding Americans of Iranian/Persian heritage, who make an annual contribution to the American economy approaching hundreds of billions of dollars and with educational achievements that are at least twice the national average>>>

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The High School Theory

We all know that we physiologically stop growing around the age of eighteen. This is a scientific fact but based on my observation, many of us also stop maturing psychologically around the same time. It seems regardless of all the experiences we have gained after the age of eighteen and we should have come across them as a valuable lesson, we still mange to end up saying, “I should’ve learned that the first time around”. To make you feel good I should say you are not in it alone. There are many of us doing the same thing everyday. Another reason that shouldn’t have felt bad about it is that you can’t even start reading the history without seeing that it repeats itself over and over>>>

Vis & Ramin

Vis & Ramin is one of the world’s great love stories. It was the first major Persian romance, written between 1050 and 1055 in rhyming couplets. The plot, complex yet powerfully dramatic, revolves around royal marital customs unfamiliar to us today. Shahru, the married queen of Mah, refuses an offer of marriage from King Mobad of Marv but promises that if she bears a daughter she will give the child to him as a bride. Vis and Ramin had immense influence on later Persian poetry and is very probably also the source for the tale of Tristan and Isolde, which first appeared in Europe about a century later. The plot, complex yet powerfully dramatic, revolves around royal marital customs unfamiliar to us today >>>

Missing the point

Perhaps Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury thought his statement about Sharia Law will be received enthusiastically as well-intended and an effort to reduce racial tensions in the society. However, his proposal got him into trouble. He was attacked from right and left. Those who saw their “white Christian culture” under threat asked for his resignation. Women rights activists, secularists and such like attacked him for the negative effects of Sharia Law on human rights, particularly the disastrous effects of such a practice on women in so-called Muslim communities. In response to harsh criticism he tried to qualify his proposal by stating that he did not mean the whole Sharia Law, but in family matters. He has just missed the point>>>

Voice of Iran

Mohammad Reza Shajarian's voice streams out with such power and purity, embodying centuries of technique yet with such emotional texture as to leave the listener in absolute awe. It’s a voice hard yet clear like crystal, a crystal through which one can see three millennia of Iran’s history and culture, from Zarathustra at the dawn of spiritual man through to Baarbad in the Sassanid court, to Alexander’s sacking of Perspolise, to the invasion of the Arabs, to Rudaki and Avecina, to the Mongol plunder and Hafez’s great existential shrug, to Hasan Sabbah’s stubborn resistance at Alamut, the horse rides in the caucuses and the Shalimar gardens in Kashmir. It’s the voice of endurance in the face of pious repression and invaders’ brutality and regeneration through culture>>>

Impossible not be very concerned

Some could claim that the building of Sivand dam in the Iranian province of Fars is necessary and has nothing to do with destroying Iran's history and pre-Islamic monuments. Many others, however, including 47 organizations in Iran itself, the UNESCO and many scholars and Iranians citizens claim otherwise. The building of this dam in the Pasargad plains can cause irreversible damage to the most valuable treasures and historical monuments in Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran has embarked on the final stages of a dam construction in the south of Iran>>>

اعتراض سراسری

نه، امروز ۲۷ بهمن ۱۳۸۶ است . امروز، روز اعتراض سراسری برای آزادی همه دانشجويان زندانی است. دانشجويان آزاديخواه و برابری طلب دانشگاه های سراسر کشور، که بسياری از آنان به جرم تلاش برای برگزاری مراسم بزرگداشت ۱۶ آذر روز دانشجو در زندان به سر می برند، از بيش از يک ماه و نيم پيش، امروز را روز اعتراض سراسری اعلام کرده اند و از همه آزاديخواهان جهان خواسته اند به هر طريقی که مناسب می دانند، خواهان آزادی فوری همه دستگيرشدگان و توقف سرکوب آزاديخواهان و برابری طلبان شوند.>>>

زنی که دو بار اعدام شد

کتاب خانم وزیر تالیف منصوره پیر نیا آخرین شاهکار در بدنام کردن یکی از خوش نامترین زنان آزادی خواه، روشنفکر، دانشمند و مبارز ایرانی است که نامش در تاریخ اجتماعی نه تنها زن ایرانی، بلکه در جهان نیز می درخشد. شیوه محاکمه و اعدام این زن لکه ننگی است جاویدان بر پیشانی حکومت اسلامی. خانم فرخ رو پارسای را تنها به این دلیل که هرگز حاضر نشد در جلسات دادگاه یا حتی به هنگام اعدام چادر بسر کند در یک گونی بزرگ نهاده، سر گونی را محکم گره زدند و او را به دار آویختند. این واقعه ننگین البته در پرونده عدالت اسلامی ابدی است. آیندگان اگر هیچ چیز از کمالات و مبارزات آزادی خواهانه بانو فرخ رو پارسا که من و ما شاهد آن بوده ایم نخوانند و ندانند فاجعه اعدام او یادشان نمی رود و چه بسا زیر تاثیر این رویداد به دنبال شناخت حقایق تاریخی که او و پشت سر او ما ساختیم برود.>>>

Save Persian

Today, our superseded Persian language still continues to be Arabo-Islamic (Farsi). Farsi is a hollow name; it does not fully represent our national identity or adapt to our future. Our culture along with our crippled Farsi is now constitutionally forced to take a further Arabo-Islamic allure, a project called “The Cultural Revolution”, planned since 1980 by the Mullahs’ regime. The long-term objective of The Cultural Revolution is to root out any aspect of non-Islamic identity from the society by introducing a greater portion of Arabo-islamisation in our culture and language. It is to promote the existing “Farsi” into a pure Arabo-Islamic language. >>>

فرهنگ شخصی : ت

توت : میوه سفید خوشمزه و شیرین وضریف که تحمل مسافرت به خارج از ایران را ندارد

تفاهم : همدیگر را فهمیدن در اروپا و امریکا معمول است ولی تحمل مسافرت به ایران را ندارد

تفنگ : نوعی سلاح آتشی که امریکای ها آزادند با آن جان همدیگر را بگیرن >>>

Slimming with Siamack (3)

Weight loss leveling out -- and our new piano >>>

The Lost Legend

Three thousand people watched the New York City Ballet performance every night, a performance which invariably ended in standing ovations and a crowd that simply did not want to leave the packed New York State Theater. The promising young ballet dancer took his bows, with each bow intensifying the crowd’s applause and noises of approval and adoration, singling him out as “The Star” of the show. He was born to a family of artists, poets and writers in 1961. Afshin Mofid was one of two children born to the legendary Bijan Mofid and his wife, Farideh Fardjam, the first female Iranian playwright, prize-winning author, poet, and director>>>

با عشق بودن، يا از عشق مردن

تا آنجا که مدارک موجود نشان می دهد، عشق در فرهنگ کهن ايرانی مورد توجه و احترام بسيار بوده است. «مهر» نام خدای بزرگ آريايی ها بوده و «مهر» و «خورشيد» نيز هموزن و گرامی و مقدس بوده اند. خود کلمه ی «عشق» هم، برخلاف تصور برخی، معرب شده ی کلمه ای کاملاً ايرانی است که در اصل به صورت «اشک» بکار می رفته است که البته ربطی به «گريه» ندارد به همين معنای عشق است. نام سلسله ی ايرانی اشکانيان نيز از همين عشق آمده است. يعنی، «عشقانيان» بوده اند در واقع! مهم تر اينکه عشق در سرزمين باستانی ما، در فرهنگ ايرانی ما، نه تنها زشت نبوده بلکه آن را همراه و همنشين «خرد» می دانسته اند. يعنی در انسان خردمند قدرت و ظرفيت عشق بيشتر است و انسان بی خرد از عشق دور تر و تهی تر به شمار می آيد.>>>